On 2 May 2016 we developed our 50,000th roll. We hold on to every single canister we develop, and so there were 50,000 empty canisters in storage that were needing a purpose. We decided to crush the canisters into cubes.
Before we could crush 50,000 metal 35mm film canisters into cubes, the metal yard requested that the canisters be free of all plastic. This meant individually removing the end caps off each canister and pulling out the plastic spool. The reason behind removing the plastic spool was to create a stronger bind during the crushing process. We were lucky enough to have a few nights where friends came to help in this process. All up it took roughly a week to complete.
Once fully removed of plastic we were left with approximately 30 full containers of 35mm film canisters ready to be taken to the metal yard for crushing. The metal yard uses a 200-tonne strong hydraulic compacter to crush everything from 44 gallon drums to scrap metal, essentially making masses of metal smaller for easier transport. We are grateful for the team at P.F. Metals for entertaining this out-of-the-norm project.
Thanks to all those who helped out with de-spooling:
Simon Aubor, Jye Barclay, Sarah Bennett, Troy Berman, Daniel Boetker-Smith, Bella Capezio, Bryce Cornock, Michael Danischewski, Sheila Marie De-Silva, Lauren Everett, Warren Everard, Tim Fenby, Kosta Grenig, Heimur, Wendy Higgs, Liam Hyland, Kip Jordan, Gabrielle Kendall, Tania Kirk, Shea Kirk, Blythe Kirk, Nathan Lawrence, Lauren Lowe, PF Metals, Emily McRae, Anne Moffat, Emily O’Mahoney, Anna Oh, Henry Owen, Tanzy Owen, Sarah Pannell, Mitch Pinney, Luke Pownall, James Reynolds, Andy Rogers, Mark Smith, Susanna Rose Sykes, Jack Taylor, Michael Thomas, Rohan Thomas, Luke Van Aurich, Genevieve Walshe, Caz Whitehead, Daniel Wilson, and Jared Skobier Wilson.
And thanks to Dan Von Czarnecki and Ben Friesen for helping us shoot a video of the process and what went into making the cube project come to life.
